n a future galaxy where interplanetary trade is a key enterprise, space piracy is a lucrative proposition--and so is running an anti-pirate security business. Only the biggest and richest companies can afford to hire the expensive escort ships, which leaves small businesses and freelance haulers vulnerable. Enter 16-year-old Meifon Li and her company, the Links Group, which provides a free pirate-fighting service to anyone Meifon considers worthy of her time. As she puts it, a free anti-pirate force was her grandfather's dying wish; judging from her company's extensive holdings and the fact that it can afford to offer its services gratis, he apparently left her the resources to pull it off. Unfortunately, this puts Meifon in direct competition with the professional space-security firms, which don't appreciate her effectiveness and popularity, let alone what it does to their bottom line.
In the first installment of this highly episodic series, the head of one such company connives to have an associate of Meifon's kidnapped by mercenaries, knowing that she'll rocket to the rescue and hopefully get herself killed. In episode 2, Meifon gets steamed over the thousands of undeserving faux-poor companies trying to wangle free services from the Links Group, but finally meets someone whose circumstances move her: a sweet, passive subcontractor who just wants to get home to his wife and
newborn child.
In episode 3, the Links Group agrees to escort a traveling exhibit of ancient art created by the Dragonites, an ancient race of reptile people, but the presence of Meifon's Dragonite crewman Duuz attracts some nasty attention. (Duuz and Links Group member Valeria were prominently featured
in episode 19 of Outlaw Star, the series from which Angel Links spun off; the relevant portion of that episode is included on the Angel Links DVD. Nitpickers may notice that Duuz's race was "Saurian" rather than "Dragonite" back then, and that Saurians were gene-spliced creations rather than a warrior race that predated man by millennia.) And in episode 4, the Links Group agrees to protect a long-lived space-dwelling creature whose liver supposedly confers immortality, making it a target for pirate groups and psychotics alike.
Stuck in space with Mary Sue
Given that Angel Links stars a phenomenally endowed 16-year-old with a high jiggle factor and a pet bat-cat living in her cleavage, and given that her naked, winged body is the first thing viewers see during the intro to each episode, it's not unreasonable to expect the series to be a titillation-fest à la Knights of Ramune or Burn Up W. Oddly enough, it's more like mecha-porn than people-porn. The spaceships get far more elaborate and ambitious design attention than the human characters, and are onscreen more often. The camera slides lovingly across painstakingly detailed vessels in every episode, and the launching of Meifon's escort fleet is a ritual that eats up an inordinate amount of screen time. Between the sedate shots of ships launching, ships being serviced, ships performing basic functions and (inevitably) the dynamic shots of ships dogfighting, there's not a whole lot of time for actual plot to take place.
In fact, the plots of these four episodes are pretty paper-thin, with the emphasis on action rather than intrigue. The fact that the bad-guy-of-the-week has died at the end of each episode so far (courtesy of the Links Cannon, a Wave Motion Gun-like super-weapon that flash-fries pirate vessels like paper airplanes caught in the wake of a blowtorch) pretty much makes an ongoing threat or plot arc impossible. Meifon is a fairly standard overstated wish-fulfillment character, with her vast empire
of ships and employees devoted to obeying her, her vaunted diplomatic skills and charm, her surprising fighting skills, her unbelievable proportions (including her hideously huge, quivering eyes) and her unique pet, which transforms into a powerful sword on command. She fits every possible definition of a fanfic Mary Sue. And where the show isn't devoted to spaceships, it's devoted to her.
A godlike teen and an obsession with starships isn't much of a basis for a series, but Angel Links is moderately entertaining and reasonably paced, with a few interesting ideas (the gigantic ether-creature in episode 4 is pretty interesting, and its cooing baby is awfully cute) and a lot of
splashy visuals. It's a reasonably lightweight time-killer that won't make viewers think unnecessarily. But that's about the best that can be said for it.
